Swordsman of the stars
by Random Rambles98462
Summary: Instead of Aincrad being a floating castle in the sky. It was instead created into a whole new galaxy for Star Citizen Online (SCO) The 11,000 players must clear 100 solar systems rather than 100 floors in order to clear the game. The rules are still the same, one life with no way out except to clear the game. Kirito X Harem


_Hey guys, its Rambles here bringing you a new story that, for once isn't for Fairy Tail! Instead its for Sword Art Online, I had this idea when a friend of mine and I were talking about a game called Star Citizen, and I thought, "Why not incorporate Sword art online with Star Citizen?" This is the end result. I hope you guys enjoy, this is my first time writing for SAO and writing in 1st person POV, all of my other ones have been in 3rd person, so any feedback you guys have, leave it in a review, good or bad, I dont mind.  
Anyway, enough of me rambling, lets get on with the story! _

**Swordsman of the stars**

 **Description: Instead of Aincrad being a floating castle in the sky. It was instead created into a whole new galaxy for Star Citizen Online (SCO) The 11,000 players must clear 100 solar systems rather than 100 floors in order to clear the game. The rules are still the same, one life with no way out except to clear the game. Kirito X Harem**

"Onii-chan, is it time to log in?" My sister asked me as we both sat in the small room in our house. Well, I say she's my sister, were actually cousins but I'm not sure if she knows or not. But I don't want to blame my sister for something our parents kept from both of us.

About what she's referring to. A short while ago, me and my sister started to get involved in online gaming. I was much more into it than my sister, but whenever she wasn't at kendo practice we'd both play together. Thankfully today was one of the days when practice wasn't on.

"The launch is at 13:00" I told my sister as I looked around the room, seeing the gaming room my mother had made me set up after Suguha, my little sister, had expressed her interest in gaming with me.

If your wondering what launch I was referring to, recently my sister and I had been part of a lucky group of only 1000 people who'd gotten to try out the beta for the first Virtual Reality MMO, it was known as SCO, or Star Citizen Online. It was a massive RPG set in space, and ever since the first time we'd 'dived' as the experience was known as, we'd both been hooked on the game.

Of course eventually the beta was closed and we spent every moment counting down to the official launch of the game by its creator, Akihiko Kayaba. I decided to look over at the clock to see how much longer we had to wait.

12:58. It was time to prepare.

Without saying anything, both me and Sugu laid down on the bed, at first it was weird, both of us laying on the same bed, using the full dive technology was best enjoyed if laying down before diving, but after our first time diving we'd gotten used to sharing the bed, plus it wasn't like we'd be able to move our real bodies while in the game. Once we were comfortable, we both put on the nervegear. I saw the lights on the side of my sister's light up, and I'm pretty sure the lights on mine were the same as well.

The internal clock on our nervegears both said the same time.

13:00

It was time to dive.

"Link start!" We both said as the indescribable experience of diving began.

I couldn't see Sugu anymore, all I could see was the plain white display in front of me, running through my 5 senses, ensuring that they were all functioning. After seeing the 5 green circles showing that I was good, the login screen popped up, there I entered my username details and a system message appeared in front of me.

 **Username: Kirito**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Language: Japanese**

 **Use character from Beta?**

 **Yes/no**

Seeing the message I quickly selected yes, I didn't want to waste time going through avatar creation.

After selecting yes a bright light filled my vision as I was finally launched back into the world of SCO.

Once the light faded I was there, in that amazing world once again. I could see the various flashes of light around me that signified new players logging in. A couple I recognised from the beta, but others I didn't. As I looked around I watched for that familiar head of hair.

"Oof!" Was the only sound I made as I was suddenly tackled by a hug from my sisters avatar.

"We're back Onii-chan!" She exclaimed as I stood back up, enjoying the feeling that being in the game gave me.

"Lets get going" I said as the two of us moved away, passing by the various NPC vendors and players buying merchandise from them.

In SCO the starting area was a huge capital space ship, the game was divided into 100 solar systems, each one varying in size and what sort of planets were found in each one. Currently the start area was in the spaceport of the first system.

Leafa, that was the name of Sugu's avatar, and I ran towards one of the shuttles heading towards the first planet in this system, but as we did we heard a voice call out to us.

"Hey wait!" Leafa and I looked back to see a man come running up to us, his avatar was tall, with shaggy red hair and a bandana on his head.

"You two move like you've been here before" He said, panting "Were you guys part of the beta test?" He asked. Leafa and I nodded. "Do you think you could show me the basics?" He asked, he was almost pleading with us, though I could notice the way he looked at Leafa, and it kinda annoyed me.

"Yeah sure" Leafa said "We're willing to help, right Kirito?" She asked, using my avatar's name rather than calling me big brother as she usually did.

I sighed, once Leafa put her mind to something it was impossible for me to say no. "Okay fine" I said and the redhead grinned excitedly.

"Thank you guys so much!" He said "I'm Klein" He added, pointing towards himself with his thumb.

"I'm Kirito" I said, but it seemed like Klein wasn't paying much attention to me, and looked straight at my sisters avatar, it didn't help that her avatar had larger… assets than perhaps was appropriate in a RPG with a predominantly male audience, not that I'd spent much time looking at them, mind you, even if we weren't related she still felt like my sister.

"And who might you be?" He asked, getting very close to Leafa

"I'm Leafa" She said, flashing a bright smile at Klein.

"Well lets get going" I said "If we're going to teach you we need to head to the surface of the first planet. It's great for practising the basics" I explained as I led Leafa and Klein towards one of the shuttles that went to the planet from the spaceport.

However just before we got to the shuttle I saw a message pop up in my vision.

 **PM from: Argo**

 **Ki-bou! Ran into someone who was asking me about teaching them the basics. We both know Ki-bou that I'm not a teacher, think you could teach her? We'll meet you at the port on the plains world.**

 **Received: 13:05**

I rolled my eyes as I saw the message, that was just like Argo, she was known as one of the best information brokers in the beta, yet she knows almost nothing about fighting, so of course she'd try to dump her problems on me. Then again, her and Leafa did keep going on at me to try and be more social with people.

I heard a ding a moment later and looked over to see Leafa reading a message, no doubt from Argo to convince me to train whoever it was she wanted me to. Leafa took one look at the message, giggled and then looked at me. I sighed before typing a reply to Argo.

 **PM to: Argo**

 **Fine, I'll teach whoever is unlucky enough to have ended up in your care. But Leafa and I managed to pick someone up while still on the capital ship. We're heading down to the plains world now. We'll see you then.**

 **Sent: 13:06**

I pressed send and then we carried on, getting onto the shuttle and heading down to the meet up with Argo.

It took us a little while getting to the plains world, but once there we soon found Argo and the other newcomer.

"Ki-bou!" She called, giving her sly grin as she saw me and Leafa. Argo had always been a strange one, even during the beta.

"Hey Argo!" Leafa said as she ran up to Argo and hugged her. I grinned at Leafa, knowing that it was a way of paying Argo back.

"So who is the person you've managed to snag in your claws this time?" I asked as Argo managed to push Leafa away.

"Oh that" Argo said, as if she'd forgotten "Sinon get over here" She added, beckoning over a young woman who'd been stood nearby.

She was a woman of average height, with short blue hair that reached her shoulders, with two long strands of hair that fell down past her shoulders and rested just above her chest. She had piercing blue eyes and seemed to be forcing herself to stand taller than she actually could, as if trying to prove something.

"Hello" I said, extending my hand towards her "I'm Kirito"

She nervously took my hand in hers, shaking it "Sinon" She said quietly

"Well its good to meet you Sinon" Leafa said, her friendly personality shining through as she gave a massive smile to Sinon. "And this is Klein" She added as Klein attempted to give a cocky grin, like he was about to hit on her before Sinon quickly kicked him in the nuts.

Klein quickly fell to the ground, grabbing his crotch. Leafa and I just burst out laughing.

"You know there's no pain sensation in this game right?" I asked and both Sinon and Klein looked up at me "You can't actually feel physical pain in this game, its all just in your head" I explained.

A moment later Klein stood up "Oh yeah your right" He said as Leafa and I just laughed again.

"Well Ki-bou I've got info to grab ASAP" Argo said as she began to walk away "Have fun with them!" She grinned before initiating a teleport and vanishing in a flash of blue pixelated light. I sighed before turning to the two newbies I'd been left in charge of.

"Right then, where to begin?" I asked

Sometime later I was stood watching Klein as he fought a wild boar. Currently he was getting his ass handed to him and it was rather funny to watch. "Remember to use your weapon skills" I said as Klein stood up. Sinon looked at me as she brought out the basic rifle she had slung across her shoulder.

"If this is an MMO about space, how come there are ground based weapon skills?" She asked. I just looked over at her.

"Well the game isn't just about space" I said "It's about exploring the different worlds in the 100 systems that make up the galaxy of Aincrad" I added

"So for various situations, the skills are divided into two umbrella categories, with sub skills under them. The first category is ship skills, which covers anything relating to your ship or the ship you work on" I explained

"The other is player skills, these are your skills and are the usuals, strength and speed, etc. Though there are endless skills for each category. No one player could even begin to use them all" I added, finishing my little explanation.

"There are other skills like blacksmithing aren't there?" Klein asked and I nodded.

"So how do we fight this boar?" Sinon asked as she held her rifle.

"Well the first thing you have to do is initiate the skill" I said and Klein groaned.

"I'm trying but the bastard keeps moving" He said, sounding kinda frustrated.

"Well, once you go through the initial skill motion, give it enough time and the system almost guarantees that the skill will hit" I explained as I picked up a nearby rock, feeling its weight in my hand I activated the skill and felt the familiar rush of energy that signified the skill activating.

I paused for a moment before grinning. I threw the stone as hard as I could and it impacted with the boars backside, making the creature flare its nostrils as it charged towards me.

"Initial skill motion?" Sinon asked

"Once you activate the skill, give it a pause. Then, once you feel like the skills ready to explode, unleash it" I explained as Klein readied his sword. I dodged as the boar charged at him. Klein's sword glowed for a moment before he let out a roar and charged.

His sword struck the boar and soon after it exploded into a mass of pixels, showing the game's death animation. Klein started to jump for joy as Sinon shouldered her rifle, taking aim at another boar, the tip of her rifle began to glow and she waited for a moment, before the bullet fired out, hitting a boar right between the eyes, triggering the death animation.

"Well done you two" I said as Leafa smiled. "You've both learned how to kill what is this games equivalent to any other RPG's slimes" I said and Leafa laughed at Klein's face when he heard this

"What?" He said "I thought that was… like some mid level boss or something" He added, before looking around, seeing various other boars spawning or being killed by some of the other players who had come to the planets surface.

Leafa and I just laughed "Nope" I said "Now come on you two, let's give you two some practice" I said as we carried on, teaching Klein and Sinon as many of the various land based features that I could.

Soon enough it was getting to be evening time on this world. Most of the planets were on a similar time scale, so that meant that it must be getting late in the real world.

"Man this world is so amazing" Klein said as Lefa and I nodded "No matter how many times I tell myself, I keep forgetting that this is a virtual world" He added

"I know the feeling" I said, drawing my sword "I've never felt more alive than I have in this world. In here, a single sword and the right ship can take you anywhere. It's not something experienceable in the real world" I said and Leafa nodded, knowing how much SCO meant to me.

"Could I ask" Sinon said, speaking up for the first time in a while "How far did you guys get in the beta?"

Leafa and I shared a look "We never got past the 8th system" I answered honestly "No one in the beta did, but this time I'm going to make it to the final boss in the last system, number 100" I said, grinning.

We soon got on to talking about the beta as Klein and Sinon continued to practice their skills.

"This has been fun" Leafa said as Klein and Sinon both took down another boar

"Yeah it has, but…" Klein said as his stomach suddenly rumbled. "I'm getting kinda hungry" He added.

"Well eating food in this world only make you think your full" I said "There's no way in this game for in game food to affect our real bodies" I added a moment later.

"Well its a good thing I'm prepared!" Klein suddenly exclaimed "I've ordered a pizza for 17:30 in the real world" He said as he smiled.

"Anyway, I wanted to thank you guys for helping me" He said to me

"No problem" I replied "If you ever want to know anything about anything than just message me" I said as Klein turned to go. Sinon had told me that she wanted to go back up to the capital ship for this system, just to see about buying some new gear. The three of us were about to walk away when we heard Klein's voice again.

"Hey, I know this is gonna sound like a really stupid question, but where's the logout button?" He asked and I looked back, confused.

"What do you mean?" I asked, bringing up the tacpad on my arm and scrolling through my menu "It should be right-" I stopped when I got to the place where the logout button was meant to be.

Key word, meant.

It was gone.

"What the hell?" I asked as Sinon and Leafa checked as well, but both of them found the same result. There was no logout button.

"This has got to be a bug" Sinon said, but Leafa and I were more concerned.

"Yeah" Klein said "A game this big has got to have a few bugs in it right?" He asked, trying to sound hopeful.

"Have you tried calling the GM?" Leafa asked as I frowned. Something wasn't right.

"I did" Klein said "But I'm not getting an answer. Are you sure that there's not some other way to log out?" He asked after a moments pause. I shook my head.

"No. In the beta the only way to log out was through the menu. There wasn't any bypass or anything like that" I explained.

"Damn" Sinon said

"Yeah, but its only the first day of launch, though I'm sure the server guys are freaking out right about now" He said with a chuckle.

Next to me I heard Leafa chuckle before I looked at my menu, letting out a small chuckle myself I spoke up "Well it looks like your about to as well" I said with a small grin as Klein checked the time the menu displayed.

17:25

"NOOO!" Klein shouted, grabbing his hair "MY PIZZA!" He cried, before having a supposed lightbulb moment "I know! I'll just pull the nervegear off of my head!" He exclaimed as he made a pulling motion where the nervegear would be on his avatar.

The three of us all watched Klein for a moment, dumbfounded.

"You know the Nervegear intercepts all transmissions our brain sends to our muscles right?" I asked Klein as he looked over at me "Its how we move about in this world and it stops us hurting ourselves in the real world" I explained, seriously, did this guy know nothing about the nervegear? I was starting to doubt it.

However just as we were about to continue we suddenly heard a bell going off. We all looked back towards the central town on this planet as the bell rang, before we were all enveloped in a blue light.

When it faded the first thing I noticed was that we were back on the capital ship "A forced teleport?" I asked no one in particular. I could hear various voices among the crowds asking various questions, the most common one being "What's going on?"

However in the large open space of the capital ship I suddenly saw a red hexagon appear above us, it read:

 **Warning!**

 **System announcement!**

The hexagon flashed for a moment before multiplying, filling the area above the gathered players with those hexagons.

When they stopped multiplying I could see…

What looked like bleeding

And it was coming from the hexagons, however after a minute or so, the liquid which seemed to drip from the sky began to form. Once complete it took the shape of a massive figure wearing a large red cloak with the hood pulled up.

"Greetings players" The voice said, and to me it almost sounded… proud. "And welcome to Star Citizen Online" The voice continued.

"I'm sure most of you have noticed that the logout button is missing" He continued "Note, this is not a bug. This is an intentional feature of SCO. I repeat, this is an intentional feature of the game" He said. And everyone began to question the words of the games creator.

Akihiko Kayaba

"Star Citizen Online was created for one purpose, to be a world that I controled" I was confused by this, what did he mean?

"There is now no longer a way to leave the game" Kayaba continued "Should someone from the outside attempt to remove your nervegear, the nervegear will emit a signal which will destroy your brain" He said as he moved his hand, and several news reports.

"However despite my warnings many families have attempted to remove the nervegear of players, as such 203 players have died. The media has covered these deaths, so rest assured the chance of your nervegear being removed is minimal" he said, as if that fact was meant to reassure us. I almost wanted to laugh, for him to announce that it was all a joke. But I knew that Akihiko Kayaba wouldn't joke about this. Everything he said was true.

"I have left a present for all of you in your inventories" Kayaba said as he waved his hand, closing the news windows "Have a look at it"

As he said this everyone, including myself, immediately brought up their tacpads, checking through their inventories, before finding what had been added. When I saw what it was, I frowned.

"Mirror?" I said, before bringing the item into my hand, sure enough, it was a small mirror. I looked at it and I could see my avatar's face looking back at me for a moment.

But only a moment

A moment later I was blinded by a flash of light, thinking it was another teleport I braced myself, but when the light faded I was still in the open area of the ship, Kayaba was still hovering above us all. But something seemed off.

"Onii-chan?" I heard Leafa ask, I turned towards her, and was shocked by what I saw.

The real body of Sugu was staring back at me. Leafa's blonde hair was now the black that Sugu and I shared, her armour seemed to be straining to hold in her large breasts, something the guys around me seemed to notice, though I'd have to deal with those later. Then I realised for a moment, If Leafa now looked like that…

I looked at the mirror in my hands, and sure enough, my real face was staring back at me.

"What the hell?" I asked, hearing some people in the crowd asking similar questions. How the hell did I look like I did in real life?

Looking around me I tried to find Klein and Sinon, but where they were stood was instead someone slightly shorter than Klein, with shorter hair, and someone who was the complete opposite of Sinon, she had long black hair, a lighter shade than mine and Leafa's, but the thing that had changed the most was her eyes, no longer were they a piercing blue, now they were a gentle brown. She looked at me in shock as I stared at the two of them.

The three of us all stated the others name at the same time, if it was in any other situation, it would have been funny, but now was not the time for jokes.

"How the hell do we look like this?" Sinon asked

"The nervegear uses high powered scans to identify our face, so that explains that, but how could it identify our body shapes?" I asked

"Don't you remember calibrating the nervegear?" Klein asked "They had you do that thing where you had to pat your body down with your hands" He explained. I vaguely remember doing that when Sugu and I had first dived, but it felt like such a long time ago.

"What does this mean?" Sinon asked, pulling me from my thoughts

I looked up to see Kayaba waiting patiently "I get the feeling that he'd about to tell us" I said.

As if he could hear me, Kayaba chose that moment to start speaking again. "I'm sure all of you are wondering why I've done this. Why would the great Akihiko Kayaba do such a thing? Well I created Star Citizen Online to be a world that only I could control. And now I have succeeded."

Kayaba's words at the beginning of his speech came to my mind, he'd said something similar.

"There is only one way for all of you to escape SCO" Kayaba said as he swiped his hand again, bringing up a map of the Aincrad galaxy "The only way for you to leave is to clear the game" He said simply.

As he spoke I could feel Leafa clinging to me, now doubt she was scared, I wouldn't be surprised, everyone was scared.

"What!" Klein shouted "That's impossible! Not even the beta testers got that far!" He shouted. I almost wanted to agree with him, but I couldn't, every game was beatable, it had to be.

"Currently" Kayaba said, ignoring the protests of the players "You are in the first system of Aincrad" He said as the map lit up "To proceed to the next system you must first find the systems boss and defeat it. This will clear that one solar system. To defeat the game you must defeat the final boss in the last system, number 100" He said

"Good luck to all of you players" He said "And welcome, to Star Citizen Online" He said as suddenly the avatar along with the red hexagons vanished.

I stood for a moment, but then I realized, we had to move. Now.

"Klein! Sinon!" I said, blindly grabbing there hands, hoping that Leafa was still holding on "Follow me" I said as we quickly rushed out of the open area and towards the shuttles.

A few minutes later I turned back, I almost breathed out a sigh of relief seeing that all three of them were with me

"we have to get moving" I added, turning to go.

"Where to?" Sinon asked

"The plains world, I know a good spot there to get a small, 4 man ship. There's a little known asteroid in this system thats good for level farming, once we've got the ship we can go there" I explained as I brought up the map on my tacpad.

"Why should we go there?" Sinon asked

"In an MMORPG such as this, resources such as exp and money are limited, so the sooner we get the experience and levels, the better our chance of survival." I said as Klein looked apprehensive

"I waited in line for hours in order to play with a load of friends of mine" He said as I looked at him. "Their back in that… I don't know what to call it, I can't just leave them behind you know" He said. I looked at Klein and tried to calculate.

"The ship is only a 4 person crew. I doubt we'd be able to take anyone else with us" I said, worried.

"Its fine" Klein said "I'll head back, you three go to that asteroid. I'll find my friends. Don't worry about me, I ran a guild back in the last RPG I played, I'll be fine" He said and I nodded

"Okay Klein" I said and I turned to Sinon "You got anyone to go to?" I asked, the black haired girl shook her head "Then come on" I was about to go when she shook her head again.

"I've got no family in the real world, but I know of one person I know who also managed to get a copy. Were not close in real life but she's friends with someone I'm close to. So I have to make sure that she makes it out alive" She said "I'll be fine, I have your teachings to guide me" She explained.

I nodded "Okay. I can't force you guys to come with. Just remember, If you ever have problems, message me" I said and turned to go. "Oh and by the way" I said, turning back towards them

"You guys look better in real life. Klein, that rugged look suits you, And Sinon, your avatar was kinda scary, whereas the real you is kinda…" I trailed off, embarrassed by what I was going to say "Kinda cute" I said quickly as Sinon blushed.

"You suit how you look as well" Klein said as he grinned at me "Now get going" He said as I turned and left, looking over my shoulder I saw that the two of them had returned towards the ships common area. But I kept running.

I took a transport down to the plains world and set out towards the location of the quest I had referred to. I was worried, for Klein and Sinon.

I saw a pair of wolf spawn in front of me and Leafa, drawing our swords we triggered sword skills and with a roar we struck the mobs. They exploded behind us into a shower of pixels, I hadn't once broken my pace as I kept running.

SCO was no longer a game, it was a matter of life and death. If I ever wanted to see my family again, I had to get stronger. Much stronger. I couldn't let anything slow me down, once We got the ship. Then we train. For the sake of surviving, for the sake of living.

I'm going to beat this game.

Even if it kills me.

"Kayaba!"


End file.
